Chiaroscuro
by xMinkx
Summary: 50 snippets  Cesare and Chiaro


50 Cesare/Chiaro sentences written for 1sentence LJ comm. I haven't posted there yet, but couldn't resist posting it here first. I'm so happy there is actually a Cantarella section here and with so many fics!!! Hello holiday reading...I really have no life.

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**Chiaroscuro**

**#01 – Ring**

The church bells ring early in the morning, but there is no long and vainglorious retinue being prepared on this side of the palazzo for it is an unspoken rule that only Michelotto accompanies Cesare to morning mass.

**#02 – Hero**

Contrary to popular belief, the great sword-hero Michelotto occasionally does break into a sweat when he fights, but only when Cesare is his opponent.

**#03 – Memory**

Of course Cesare has many memories of his youth, but only those that involve Chiaro are good ones.

**#04 – Box**

There was once an incident where an elaborately carved box was delivered to the palazzo with a poisonous snake inside that Cesare was stupid enough to open; Chiaro called him on it, but heard no retaliation even when he proceeded to suck the snake venom out from veins already infused with Cantarella.

**#05 – Run**

"Fate cannot be out run, Chiaro," Cesare says in the tone of a sage. "But it can be bent to our will."

**#06 – Hurricane**

That once awkward and depressed little boy owned him, completely owned him; it's the only reason he would ride through wind and rain on a moment's notice to eliminate dangerous mercenaries for no payment in return.

**#07 – Wings**

Every time he killed for his master, Chiaro's angelic wings lost a few more feathers; that caused him to wonder how in the world he was going to carry them both to Heaven.

**#08 – Cold**

"You shouldn't use your powers for trivial…" Chiaro is cut off when Cesare's mere fingertips fill him with deep warmth that blocks out the chill of the snowy countryside, "Fine, but don't make it a habit."

**#09 – Red**

A general's red cape was victory while a citizen's red cap was freedom, but this red cardinal's robe was an ill conceived prison.

**#10 – Drink**

No matter how much he drinks, alcohol does not affect Cesare, but he pretends so he can act his age and not as if he were years older.

**#11 – Midnight**

It was just a prank that happened long ago, but every time the bells strike midnight, Chiaro feels the weight of the young cardinal's lips burning into his soul.

**#12 – Temptation**

"Lead me not into temptation…" While Lucrezia said her prayers, Cesare spies Chiaro waiting outside the church for them, his lean body relaxed against a marble column looking for all the world like he should have wings. _"Lead me not indeed, I've found the way myself."_

**#13 – View**

Michelotto doesn't mind that Volpe is always at Cesare's right hand because the shadows or the rafters offer a much better view of the cardinal's right, left, front and back.

**#14 – Music**

Prince Djem's melancholy music drew Chiaro in just like Cesare's inner vulnerability had, but his light was not enough for both of them.

**#15 – Silk**

Just like a Borgia, Cesare enjoys beautiful things; the perfumes of the Mediterranean, spices of the East, the silk of Chiaro's lips and the gold of his hair…

**#16 – Cover**

Nothing will overcome Niccolo's fascination with the Borgias, who under cover of ecclesiastical office seemed to do everything and nothing all at once, paving their path of power atop the blackened shards of their own souls.

**#17 – Promise**

Michelotto promised to kill Cesare if he ever succumbed to the demons, only Chiaro will do anything to protect the child within.

**#18 – Dream**

With the power he commanded, nothing Cesare dreamed of was impossible…until he dreamt of his closest friend caressing him most intimately with no reservations about delving deeper and deeper into sin.

**#19 – Candle**

Cesare Borgia: born in grief, raised in misery, _cursed_ and abandoned by God Himself, yet Juan still couldn't hold a candle to his brother when it came to who commanded more love and loyalty.

**#20 – Talent**

"Huh, I never knew you studied art." Chiaro commented before the sheet sketched with his likeness was snatched away; Cesare tucked the paper back into the book shelf before replying, "I didn't, but the subject sometimes fascinates me."

**#21 – Silence**

The demons and maligned spirits talk to him every night, urging him to succumb to the darkness; only God is silent as stone.

**#22 – Journey**

"_But mother, whose destiny is greater than that of Kings?" _Vanozza simply smiled at her adopted son before replying, _"A traveler's destiny, my Cesare, at the end of his journey."_

**#23 – Fire**

For the longest time, he was afraid to close his eyes because he would see leaping flames behind the lids and the scent of brimstone would linger nauseatingly all day.

**#24 – Strength**

The adversities of religious self-denial were one thing, but it took a different kind of strength to balance the forces of good and evil in one's own body.

**#25 – Mask**

Behind the famous mask, Michelotto is a formidable character, assassin without peer and feared by everyone, yet it had all fallen short when he came face to face with a boy with golden eyes.

**#26 – Ice**

Shivering in the icy grip of darkness and terror, he blindly clutches at a source of light as Saint Michael's prayer falls incoherently from his lips; _"Calm down, Cesare, you'll be fine,_" is the last thing he hears before he falls into blessed rest.

**#27 – Fall**

"Signor Cesare is so beautiful," sighs a court lady and Sancia only snorts in derision before thinking sardonically, _"So was Lucifer before he was thrown head first into Hell."_

**#28 – Forgotten**

"What can I do for our lost youth, Chiaro? How can I bring back the angel whose wings were my home?" The specter of young Cesare whispered and the guilt and grief hurt the assassin more than any torture Volpe could think of.

**#29 – Dance**

A little too late, Chiaro thinks he shouldn't have danced with Lucrezia at Carnival because that was when the end had begun.

**#30 – Body**

Deep inside, he knew he didn't deserve death; rather his body had to suffer for the sin he'd committed in betraying Cesare.

**#31 – Sacred**

Sensing the absence of the light which usually surrounding him, the demon which possessed Vanozza's discarded body flew to Cesare, lured by a scent of poison and blood so strong that even the sanctity of Vatican City did not hinder its progress.

**#32 – Farewells**

"_Leave Rome and never show your face to me again!" _Michelotto stared speechlessly at Cesare's retreating back, only the latter knows full well that this was no permanent goodbye.

**#33 – World**

The Kingdom of God does not interest Cardinal Cesare, not when this world is just waiting to be conquered by his hand.

**#34 – Formal**

"Be glad you won't be addressing the Pope, Chiaro, formality is just not you."

**#35 – Fever**

Blood is spilled on the battlefield and as his body burns with a desire to be drenched in it, the red robe smothers him even more.

**#36 – Laugh**

Just as night turns to day, Cesare's eyes become soft and he laughs like a child, leaving Chiaro to wonder if he had only imagined the malignant flashes of gold in the dark irises.

**#37 – Lies**

He had lied; he didn't really have any scruples sleeping with his sister in exchange for her eternal compliance, but he wanted her to suffer as he did when he couldn't silence the sinful voice of his heart.

**#38 – Forever**

It is somewhere between a dream and punishment when Cesare says, "You should have killed me when I asked, Chiaro, but now look…you are bound to me forever."

**#39 – Overwhelmed**

It had to be Chiaro's luck that just when he was committing the highest betrayal against his friend and master, the long denied feelings came back to wrap him like a smothering cocoon.

**#40 – Whisper**

"I love you so much, Chiaro," came the whisper; he flipped on to his side, ready to retort with some witty comment about lions turned fawns, but stopped as soon as he came face to face with Lucrezia's limpid eyes.

**#41 – Wait**

He sat by the window and bore the terrible pain stoically, avoiding the look in Volpe's eyes which said that he would soon have to stop waiting for Michelotto to return.

**#42 – Talk**

Cesare talks to Chiaro about anyone and anything except his own feelings, because the former cannot be ruled by his emotions and the latter cannot pity him.

**#43 – Search**

"Search the whole of Italy for them if you must! And if Chiaro resists," Here his voice trembled for the first time before Volpe's bowing figure. "…kill him."

**#44 – Hope**

The fact that there are no saints without a past or sinners without a future goes to show that God does not begrudge hope to anyone.

**#45 – Eclipse**

His body maintains such a fragile balance: light and dark, good and evil, sin and virtue, and one side always finds it easier to eclipse his soul than the other.

**#46 – Gravity**

There are two kinds of people in God's world: those who overcome the gravity of sin and fly to Heaven and those fall to Hell; then a third kind who is born with lead weights already attached to his soul.

**#47 – Highway**

Even the most notorious highway bandits in Italy have long since learned not to waylay two lone horses carrying a blond youth who breathed swordplay and a seemingly pretty brunet whose eyes were proof that Hell existed.

**#48 – Unknown**

"I'm completely unarmed and asking for my death, so why won't you kill me?" the mask fell from Michelotto's face and he addressed with downcast eyes the child who was two years his junior, "I don't know…"

**#49 – Lock**

Volpe growled furiously at the jail cell now missing one sorely wounded assassin; if mere lock and key weren't enough to contain Michelotto, maybe Hell was.

**#50 – Breathe**

Chiaro knows as long as there is breath in his body, he will be hopelessly enchanted by his master's eyes.

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Finito 

Concrit is totally appreciated and I apologize if it is random and drifting in/out of canon.


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